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Monday, June 23, 2014

Trending Younger

My first two novels, written under Jewel Amethyst, were romances “A Marriage of Convenience” and a novella in “Holiday Brides” anthology written for a purely adult audience.  A year ago I published “Indiscretion” in the Kindles Worlds, “Pretty Little Liars” Universe.  That was a young adult mystery aimed for teens and above.  This year, in collaboration with my eleven year old protégé and coauthor Lynelle A. Martin, and an author/publisher who happens to be a novelnaught, Carol Ottley-Mitchell, I’m about to release my first children’s book, “Zapped: Danger in the cell.”

It seems like I keep trending younger with each passing year.  How did I get to that?

For one, this children’s book has been years in the making.  It first began with a conversation with my daughter when she was but six years old.  My romance had just been released and she asked if she could read it. I told her she was too young.  She then asked if she could write a book with me.  I told her she can’t write the kinds of books I write.  Then she said, “Well if you write a children’s book, then I could write it with you.”

I thought about it for a long while, but it didn’t come into fruition until she was about eight years old.  She was home bored in the summer.  I was trying to encourage her to read as well as excite her with the type of science I’m passionate about.  So as a summer project we decided to write a book about little kids who were shrunk and zapped into a cell.

Fast forward to this year, and what was a summer project has become the first in a series of children’s books by Jewel A. Daniel and Lynelle A. Martin, published by Caribbean Reads and set for release in July, 2014.  Below is the official announcement.

New middle-grade book available in July


Looking for something to keep your middle-grade children’s brain active this summer? Check out “Zapped! Danger in the Cell”.

When  a mysterious machine shrinks Sonya, Lynelle, and Giselle to microscopic proportions they become so small that they slip through the walls of a cell and the three girls find themselves caught up in a roller coaster of an adventure that has them running for their lives.

Do they ever escape?


Pre-Order Zapped! to find out!

Zapped! is the first book in the Small Worlds series written by Jewel Daniel and Lynelle Martin. The book is being published by CaribbeanReads and is illustrated by Ann-Cathrine Loo. It is aimed at middle-grade readers and will be available in July.

St. Kitts born Jewel is a cell biologist, author and educator who combines her love for science and books to teach kids about the exciting microscopic world of the cell. She already has three publications under the pen name Jewel Amethyst, A Marriage of Convenience, Holiday Brides, and Pretty Little Liars: Indiscretion. Zapped is her first children’s novel.

Lynelle is the star of this show. She is a rising middle school student with an avid interest in science and adventure. Zapped is her debut novel, but she has already written the sequel and plans to work on book 3 this summer.

Visit our Order page to reserve your copy of Zapped! for $6.99. Shipping charges may apply for non-US customers.

6 comments:

  1. Congrats to you and Lynelle on the release of Zapped, Jewel! I'm not the target demographic but I find myself looking forward to reading it because I've never seen the 'shrinking human' trope used in this context. A wonderful idea indeed.

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  2. Thanks Charles. It's inside the cell on the chromosomes.

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  3. I'm sorta the target demographic once removed in that I took a YA class as part of my MFA program and discovered I'm a fan. (I've always had good memories of the "juvenile" adventure/detective novels of the 50s and 60s - I've credited Heinlein's juvenile SF novels books for getting me interested in writing, but I was also a fan of Emil and the detectives, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Jr., and all the "boy" heroes of the age - but I hadn't really appreciated how deep and diverse the genre is.) I'm now so much a fan of YA lit my thesis project is a YA SF novel. I think your current trend younger is a good thing.

    Brava! to you and Lynelle for bringing your first novel to fruition. I'm sure we'll be seeing more novels and stories with her name on them.

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  4. Oh Thank you KeVin. As a child my favorites were Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Secret Seven and Famous Five.
    Tried to get my daughter into them, but she was more interested in the Magic Tree House series.

    Now she's a little older she's all about the Dork Diaries. Lynelle loves the writing and editing process (she hates the research part), so we're planning to do more over the summer. Who knows, maybe some day soon it will be her name alone.

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